Do you already have your list? Are there any others you would like to recommend? If so, please don’t hesitate to send us your comments.

The Digital Identity Industry: Now and Then

The last couple of years have seen the Digital Identity space grow-up and become the popular kid in high-school, and we couldn’t be happier. IdentityMind pioneered digital identity technology and its application for securing financial transactions.

Digital identities have become the key to accessing products and services, for unlocking benefits and value, they are at the center of compliance, risk management, and fraud prevention, as well as a vehicle for inclusion and enablement. Without a doubt, the identity industry is only getting started, and we are due for much innovation, integration, and collaboration –between industries, businesses, NGO’s, Regulators and Government Agencies.

“The way we perceive the concept of identity is changing, not only because we are growing more aware of its importance, but also as we realize identities are central to every industry in one way or another. We have just started to understand that identity is more than just a physical government-issued piece of information, it is a vast collection of information on entities: be it things or individuals, and this information cannot only be used to identify a person, but also act as a time-stamped behavioral online journey or map. The wealth of information is beyond what we can imagine. Unfortunately, with great power comes great responsibility – and the risks are as high as the possibilities. The K(NO)W Identity Conference 2017 will be a great place to spur cross-industry collaboration, since the challenges we will face as an industry cannot be fought individually. At One World Identity we are convinced that cooperation between leaders of Government, Businesses, and NGOs is the answer to unlocking the truest value of identities” – Travis Jarae, CEO and Founder at One World Identity.

To help with such a grand mission, changemakers and thought leaders are coming together under the identity umbrella for the K(NO)W Identity Conference 2017, organized by One World Identity. The agenda is packed with sessions ranging from technology and implementation, risk and security, to privacy and inclusion. And even though I would love to attend every single one, I had to choose, and let me tell you, it wasn’t easy. For a few sessions I’m trying to master the art of being in two places at once. Nonetheless, please find below my top picks for can’t miss sessions. In between sessions, you can find the IdentityMind team at Booth # 308, or if you feel like planning ahead, you can set up a time to talk to us by clicking the link below.

Identity Verification: Demographic Challenges

You’ve probably heard this a thousand times, but here it goes again: there is an important and significant percentage of the global population whose identity cannot be verified based on traditional parameters. It’s not that we don’t have information about them, we just can’t fit that information into our verification models. This begs the question: is the model even right? Should we evaluate every user – no matter their specific characteristics – based on the same standards? The accepted answer to this question has already been challenged by online lenders and other FinTech verticals. However, the question is bigger than they are, and the answer is twofold: not only do we need to explore broader evaluation models, we need to do so in a way that our business remains compliant with applicable regulation and protected from unwanted risks. This cross industry panel will discuss specific cases, emphasizing not only the regulation, technology and cost of verifying these users, but how to balance inclusion and the risks associated with changing/adjusting your verification standards.

Most of us grew up in a time before ride-sharing and an online marketplace for home rentals, and even though I’m not telling you how long ago that was, what I can say with certainty is none of us ever imagined that we would be sharing our homes and cars with strangers. Fast-forward a few years and the sharing economy is now not only a popular business model, but we can’t also imagine our lives without the convenience these platforms and marketplaces have brought about. And even though looks “easy peasy” from the outside, all these companies face the same challenge: an overlooked – yet fundamental – aspect, trust, is required for the model to work. Without trust there would not be a sharing economy. But it’s not as easy as relentlessly interrogating every user – hello, user experience anyone? – there needs to be a balance. This panel of industry experts will discuss how they are leveraging identities to redefine trust in the digital era, without sacrificing user experiences.

For something that we’ve taken for granted most of our lives, our identity, if stolen, can unleash a series of unfortunate events: account takeover, synthetic identities, as well as many other fraudulent schemes. Identity theft is a problem that concerns us all, across industries and geographies. You might feel like fraudsters are always one step ahead of us, but as we push the industry to collaboration and innovation, you’ll find that we are on the verge of changing that, starting with this panel. During this session, this group of experts will discuss the newest strategies in preventing identity-based fraud, both effectively and efficiently, without jeopardizing the customer’s experience and convenience.

Effective and efficient Risk Management and Compliance is absolutely necessary to compete and remain in business. Because these are regulatory requirements, we have mistakenly taken them for granted, as a de facto function in our operations, but that doesn’t have to be the case. Designing compliance and risk management processes that are flexible, and leverage the latest identity solutions, opens the door to a whole new set of customers. You know you’ve found gold when by achieving operational efficiency you also pave the way to new markets, and facilitate inclusion. Join these industry experts to understand how technology is facilitating and making this possible, and take notes from their experiences as they share how they used digital identities to transform how we see risk and compliance.

Is it just me, or is Payments the tree that keeps on giving? Payments is a space that grows at an unprecedented pace, as our buying habits go digital exponentially, while remaining fraudsters’ favorite. Don’t let challenges discourage you. While operations have become more complex, the untapped potential is worth the risks, especially considering population growth, buying habits, and even selling habits. What you need is a few insights from this group of experts who will address directly the KYC challenges in the space, strategies for risk mitigation, and how to use technology for efficient and effective compliance processes.

International Regulation of Identification in Financial Services: Key Differences and Trends

The cost of compliance has been increasing, and so has revenue lost due to lost business lines and changing capital and liquidity requirements. Some have said that by 2020 there will more than 300 million pages of financial regulation. Still, legislators keep proposing changes and new requirements to an already complex and hard-to-keep-up regulatory environment. The word overwhelming comes to mind.

There is no escaping regulatory requirements if you want to stay in business (and out of jail). The only thing you can do is get as smart as you can on the subject, and pay attention to experts, such as the ones on this panel, on which key trends affect regulation in matters of identity, and how do different regulations impact your business.

Identity islands, each individual platform for which a user has created a username and password, are one of the major challenges the industry is trying to overcome, not only because the lack of interoperability makes operations less efficient, but also because the burden of maintaining these islands falls on the individual, which is detrimental to both security and user experience. The different Digital Identity models have tackled the issue of interoperability from different perspectives, each emphasizing either privacy, data security, or ease of access. However, given how these models go around the problem, none has gained enough momentum or consensus to be generally adopted by organizations and validated by standards bodies. Still, they created a baseline upon which experts and leaders can continue to build. A journey that goes from the challenges of creating interoperability in identity, going through the developments and technologies that are being used to build trust frameworks, to the steps necessary to drive adoption.

A digital identity is a collection of attributes that defines an individual, a thing, or an organization. Attributes are then the key pieces of information that, combined one way or another, make an identity unique. However, they are also the little keys that unlock access to different products, services, and benefits. Although this is a huge leap forward from how traditional access was granted, as any other change, it doesn’t come without challenges. This panel will address what these challenges are and how different organizations are managing the changes that accompany this shift.

“Attributes is an identity nerd speak term so I’ll translate to human: when we talk about attributes, we are talking about ID cards. And, of course, ID cards are important for obvious reasons. For example, a student ID card might get a college sophomore a discount at Chipotle, the ability to pay at the university cafeteria, and physical access to a dormitory. Unfortunately, digital identity systems are often organized around the enterprise, not the individual, so what should be a straightforward translation of analog to digital wallets gets really convoluted since people don’t generally control their ID cards online. As a result, there is a lot of value to create from fixing the ecosystem, and we are going to dive right into some examples of how life is better with digital ID cards” – Blake Hall, Founder & CEO at ID.me.

We are very excited to be a part of this pivotal moment in the identity industry, and we are very much looking forward to next week’s K(NO)W Identity Conference 2017. If you are planning on attending the show, don’t hesitate to stop by Booth # 308 [a.k.a. our booth] to say hello! Click below to set a time.